Germany bomb suspect recognized from wanted poster

A man suspected of planning a major terrorist attack in Germany was recognized by three fellow Syrians who saw his image on a wanted poster and called police, according to German investigators cited by the Associated Press.

German police on Monday morning arrested Jaber al-Bakr, a 22-year-old refugee of Syrian descent, ending a major two-day manhunt. Al-Bakr was found tied up in a flat in the eastern city of Leipzig after a tipoff by two other Syrian men.

News reports say al-Bakr, who entered Germany illegally in February 2015, had links to Islamic State and may have been targeting an airport in Berlin. He had been under surveillance by Germany’s intelligence service, the BND, for several months.

At the weekend, al-Bakr evaded capture when police raided his apartment in Chemnitz, eastern Germany. They found explosives, including so-called TATP — a homemade explosive used in the Paris and Brussels terror attacks.

The explosives were “almost ready, or even ready for usage,” Joerg Michaelis, chief investigator in the eastern state of Saxony, was quoted as saying in the AP. The suspect was apparently preparing a “bomb, possibly in the form of a suicide vest,” Michaelis added.

“The methods and behavior of the suspect suggest an IS [Islamic State] context,” Michaelis said.